Friday, January 22, 2016

It's a Friday fulla something. New somethings. Loud somethings. Dark somethings.
ALL OF THESE WONDERFUL SOMETHINGS CAN BE OBTAINED IN OURSTORESTORE STORE

America's Greatest Hits LP (LUNGS-075) by GAG
GAG - America's Greatest Hits LP w/download (LUNGS-075)
Destined to be the most famous of all the bands. At least in their vision of the future that is. We like them. You like them. Why not? Go big or fuck off.
Trippy violence and snake charms drenched in delay and fuel this wild, ugly, mid-tempo hardcore punk vehicle. All the way across the salt. For 180 days. Crew up and get down with America’s greatest.
700 copies on black vinyl, 300 on something else, housed in a heavy duty sleeve adorned with Scott Young’s perfect artwork. Recorded by Nudity’s own Capt. Tripps in Olympia, WA.

375 Images of Angels LP (LUNGS-074) by BEHAVIOR
BEHAVIOR - 375 Images of Angels LP w/download (LUNGS-074)
John Cage related this anecdote: “One evening I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard, nothing much to do. I stopped and looked in the window of a stationary shop. A mechanized pen was suspended in space in such a way that, as a mechanized roll of paper passed by it, the pen went through the motions of the same penmanship exercises I had learned as a child in the third grade. Centrally placed in the window was an advertisement explaining the mechanical reasons for the perfection of the operation of the suspended mechanical pen. I was fascinated, for everything was going wrong. The pen was tearing the paper to shreds and splattering ink all over the window and on the advertisement, which, nevertheless, remained legible.”
This little musing somehow rhymes with the spirit of BEHAVIOR’s '375 Images of Angels,' unique “musical” approach to punk. The very essence of punk is a contemptuous “fuck you” to convention anyway, or at least a troubled groping for new avenues of self creation. There is a simple beauty in deconstruction, in calculated naivety, in messes, in processes and in the plain night air of Los Angeles. '…Angels' dances like a dog shaking off a swim. '...Angels' is as deliberate as it is free. Don’t we all want this dichotomy in our lives? The drive to make our time our own and the permission to chase joy?

Desplazados 7" (LUNGS-072) by GAUCHO
GAUCHO - Desplazados 7" w/download (LUNGS-072)
The darkness and hate of living in the modern day is inescapable. People will always try to control you, force their ideologies on you and bind you with their ridiculous laws. Sooner or later you will get tired and hit back. And if true passion is there, you will succeed. It is hard not to hear the passion on this record. Gaucho delivers a Colombia-via-Canada raw hardcore pogo march to the death of tyrants far and wide. Members of S.H.I.T. give us a 5 song window into the struggle for a higher quality of life and we thank them for that.

and last but not least

One Scythe Fits All OST 7" (LUNGS-073) by WILKINSON/KORTLAND
WILKINSON/KORTLAND - One Scythe Fits All OST 7" w/download (LUNGS-073)
The highest fidelity lo-fi synth driven soundtrack written and recorded by PIG HEART TRANSPLANT partners in crime, Greg Wilkinson and Jon Kortland. To say it's heavy and creepy is a no brainer. Are there slight moments of comic relief? Of course, it's a horror movie, duh. In true 80's slasher style there a small bits of dialogue between scintillating score tracks. Imagine listening to a mashup of Black Devil Doll From Hell (Chester N. Turner) and The Fog (John Carpenter) and you start to get an idea of the sounds happening here. Would you swim in a a pool where a dead body was found? We would, and we would listen to this while we were doing it.
300 copies on red and black splatter vinyl housed in a beautiful full color pocket sleeve with merch insert. Art: Amy Browne. Photos: Karoline Collins. Directed: Dionne Stevens & Maya Messoriano.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

The punks (and lesser types) never let me down when it comes to genre busting and general freekiness. There have been so many big things this year. Thankfully, a pigeon hole is not one of them. Life moves quick and changes even quicker so you have to pick your battles more carefully than ever. I suppose you could stumble through and be fine but the quality that comes with living that way is absurd and lacking. I choose the fringe. I choose passion. Even more, I choose the records that the passionate fringe produces.

Records are crazy expensive to make and to buy now but there is something magical about having that tangible artifact from your personal journey. Records rule okay? Buy them. But buy the good ones, the real ones, not those insipid Record Store Day reissues or major label avarice platters. Besides, with streaming and downloading being so easy, we don’t have spend all our dough building a huge vinyl collection just to hear our favorite tunes on a repeat basis.

Gathering new music these days can be like listening to that mystery mixtape the weird stranger kid leaves at the record shop randomly offering his accumulated tastes on anyone willing enough to listen. Hearing MARTIN DENNY’s ‘Misirlou’ next to JAMES GANG following JANKY and PATRICK FITZGERALD is not that uncommon any more. I fucking love that. I mean, it does take some curating but still the diversity these days is invigorating to say the least.

For me, music has always been about the energy and the vibe. Here is what got me this year: